Posts Tagged ‘persecution’

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Please note, the next section is very graphic. This month there is a story of Lorenzo who had been a Christian for 2 years when he got married. Soon after, he went into the village of Jomalho where the villagers were not fond of evangelical Christians. When the villagers found out who he was, they began to form a mob. From the article:

…but Lorenzo was captured by the angry mob. As the villagers beat and kicked him, Lorenzo screamed, “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! I’m young and just got married!”

The mob tied a rope around Lorenzo’s neck, and the sobbing newlywed was forced to dig his own grave. Witnesses say some villagers smashed Lorenzo’s teeth and then gouged out both his eyes. Several men tugged on one end of the noose while others pulled on the opposite end. They choked Lorenzo to death, threw his lifeless, battered body in the shallow grave and smashed his skull with rocks. They filled in the grave with dirt and returned to their homes and businesses as if nothing had happened.

I had never heard of Chiapas. Please pray for Lorenzo’s family and his new wife. Please pray for the church to be excellent witnesses to those who seek to expel Christ from their country.

I suspect many of you have heard this story before, having taken place only 8 years ago in India, but I hadn’t. What a powerful story, praise God for those whom he raises up to do his sacrificial work! Read it here.

An article picked up from the Associated Press reports that at least 10 churches were attacked and burned in India on Christmas night. One man was killed and 30 more were injured during the attacks. Typically these stories do not appear in the mainstream press and I have to wait for the Voice of the Martyrs to pick it up, but this one was reported by a few mainstream agencies. Please pray for the believers in India, for their encouragement and that their witness during this persecution would not go unnoticed by the attackers.

Reuters is reporting on comments made by the Vatican in response to a lot of criticism they are receiving for their perceived methods of evangelism. Some groups have gone so far as to call it:

proselytism, or seeking new members aggressively or through coercion

Rome defended its methods of evangelism and even called it:

an inalienable right and duty, an expression of religious liberty …

Is this true? Without getting into a discussion on Roman Catholic theology, can we correctly say this about evangelism, that it is a God-given right which cannot be taken away by man? Is there any such thing as a God-given right that cannot be taken away?

My thought would be no, evangelism is not something that cannot be taken away from us, because it was never promised to us. What has been promised to us?

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.Matthew 10:16-23

For the true Christian, that is our promise. That when we go to these places where God’s established government will not allow us to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) that we will be persecuted for His Name’s sake.

So, there are such things as inalienable rights. To the Christian, they are called the promises of God:

I will never leave you nor forsake you.Hebrews 13:5

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ JesusRomans 8:1

that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus ChristPhilippians 1:6

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.Revelation 3:5

These are just a few of God’s promises to us, thank God for His Word that we can rely on to be true. These promises are meant for us to rest upon, to give us hope during the difficult and the easy times in our lives. These are the only things we can rely on, those things promised by God. Anything else is fleeting and will not last.

Now it’s your turn, what other promises does the Christian have? What promises does the non-Christian have?

The article also says the Roman Catholic church is working on a missionary “code of conduct”. I think I would like to write more about this tomorrow (what the Scriptures say about a code of conduct for missionaries) unless someone cares to pick up on it on their own blog?